BreastMilk Jaundice
No one knows what the cause of breast milk jaundice is. In order to make this diagnosis, the baby should be at least a week old, though interestingly, many of the babies with breast milk jaundice also have had physiologic jaundice, sometimes to levels higher than usual.
The baby should be gaining weight well, with breastfeeding alone, having lots of bowel movements, passing plenty of clear urine and be generally well . In such a case, the baby has what some call breast milk jaundice, though, on occasion, infections of the urine or an under functioning of the baby's thyroid gland may present the same picture.
Breast milk jaundice peaks at 10-21 days, but may last for 2-3 months. Breast milk jaundice is normal. Rarely, if ever, does breastfeeding need to be discontinued even for a short time.
There is evidence to suggest that this jaundice causes any problem at all for the baby. Breastfeeding should be continued "in order to make a diagnosis". If, however, your doctor feels that discontinuing breastfeeding is appropriate, it would be worth trying a lactation aid with formula rather than taking the baby off the breastfeeding completely, since this may result in difficulties with breastfeeding later.
If the baby is truly doing well on breast milk only, there is no reason, to stop breastfeeding or supplement with a lactation aid, for that matter.
The notion that there is something wrong with the baby being jaundiced comes from the assumption that the formula feeding baby is the standard by which we should determine how the breastfed baby should be. This manner of thinking, almost universal amongst health professionals, truly turns logic upside down. Thus, the formula feeding baby is rarely jaundiced after the first week of life, and when he is, there is usually something wrong. Therefore, the baby with breast milk jaundice is a concern and "something must be done". However, in our experience, most exclusively breastfed babies who are perfectly healthy and gaining weight well are still jaundiced at 5-6 weeks of life and even later. The question, in fact, should be whether it is normal not to be jaundiced and whether this absence of jaundice is something we should worry about? Do not stop breastfeeding for jaundice.